Immediate past Chief of Air Staff and Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Bauchi State, Air Marshall Sadique Baba Abubakar (rtd), in this interview speaks about his plan to embark on aggressive development of the state if elected governor during the March, 2023 poll. Deji Elumoye brings excerpts:
Why are you interested in Bauchi State governorship race?
I left the service not too long ago but I decided to join politics because I believe that we can add value to what is on ground. I have been very lucky and went through a very functional system while growing up and so because of that we were able to go to school.
But it is sad today that access to education has become so limited and that to us is totally unacceptable and it is going to bring much bigger problems in future and that is why we decided to be part of the process to see how we can add value.
As a retired three-Star General, I have been trained, I have gone through so many processes and I don’t want to just retire with that knowledge in my village and just keep it to myself.
I took the decision to be part of the political process to see how we can add value to the society and see how we can revamp some of the economic, political and social issues that are affecting our society.
So the focus of my campaign is to sensitise the people on the situations that are on ground in Bauchi State.
You look at the statistics and you discover that the education sector in Bauchi State, you see that there are over 1.4 million children that are out of school, they cannot have access to school and they are not likely going to be able to contribute to the development of the society.
If you look at even those that are in schools, the net attendance is only 29 percent which is extremely poor. The national average is 68 percent but what we have in Bauchi is 29.9 percent attendance.
If you go to the health sector, they have similar issue where we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Nigeria in our state.
1,549 women are dying per every 100,000 births, that is totally unacceptable and I think it has to do with the failure of leadership, people have refused to really discharge their responsibility to our women. No support to our women in the health sector.The only way you can survive is if you have resources and you can go to private clinics and so on which is elitist.
If you look at the entire state, what percentage can have access to private health clinics and so on? So the figures are very disturbing and unless we do something about it, unless we come in to rescue the state so that we change the narrative and make children go back to school like we had the opportunities to go to school…
In our own day, everything was available. You had free uniform, free everything and even pocket money. But today those opportunities are no longer there and that to me is something that we should really be worried about and hence our decision to go to politics.
Apart from the health sector, if you look at youth empowerment, youths constitute 65 to 70 percent of the population but unfortunately we do not have any structure in place that is dedicated to empower youth. That is stage, they are very energetic but unfortunately the structure is not there for them to really empower them.
They don’t have the enabling environment for them to be creative, for them to be innovative and contribute to the development of the state, that is why you find them hanging here and there.
So like I said education is the most important in any society. If you are to destroy a society, don’t go with rifles, just make sure they don’t go to school and within a short time they will start killing themselves. This is exactly to some extent what is happening especially in our own part here. Then you look at agriculture, this is a very important sector. There is a lot of hunger, there is a lot of economic deprivation and that is because the agriculture sector has not been effective in providing job opportunities and social economic development and all the support that farmers are supposed to get, they are not getting it.
When you talk of fertilizers and other improved seedlings, preparation of the lands and so on, and all the support farmers are supposed to have, they don’t have it. So all the support they are supposed to get from the government is not there and hence you find that production is not at the level it should be.
We are endowed with solid minerals, over 100 different types of minerals but there isn’t any strategy on ground to really work with the federal government and development of the solid minerals sector of the state for the benefit of not only the state but indeed the federal government. This is a major issue and I believe that these are the areas that we can look at and improve on to see how we can generate resources for the state. Most of our industries have virtually collapsed and when I was in the Airforce, I used to buy things from Bauchi factories, we used to buy things for our soldiers right from 2009 when I was a Commander in Port Harcourt. We used to buy this Tabo Nama for our soldiers so that when we deploy them, they used to have something to eat. When I became Chief of the Air Staff, I was trying to do the same for my troops in Maiduguri and other areas but unfortunately they were not there anymore, the industries have collapsed.
Also, we had the Flour Mills in Azare that could accommodate about 30,000 workers, it has collapsed also.
If you look at the fertilizer company also in Bauchi which is supposed to add value to our educational sector, that has equally collapsed and right now quite a number of these companies are out and they sold them off to private people. So these are the fundamental issues that I felt it is necessary for me to use my experience and knowledge and what I have seen in the service to see if I can add values to our communities in Bauchi.
This, in a nutshell, is what this project is about. Because if we get things right at the state level, the federal level will also be okay especially insecurity.
Security and development are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have development if there is no security. Similarly, we cannot have security if there is no development. People must understand that they have a stake in the process to be able to participate and contribute. But the moment they know that they don’t have any stake in a system, then chances are that they might not only refuse to cooperate, they might even mobilise against the state. And starting point in doing this is at the state level. The federal government is doing a lot, at least I am aware. We have acquired so many fighter aircraft for the service.
The Buhari’s administration has done so much in ensuring that we have the required equipment but the problem is where you are generating insecurity which is at the lower level, things are not happening properly. Also women constitute a large population but unfortunately most of these women have no support or whatsoever from government and that is certainly going to impact negatively on the system itself.
So our programme is to see how we can pass these ideas to the voting population to let them understand that we have our focus which is on development and addressing some of these fundamental problems that are making life very difficult for our people.
We must educate our women and if you do that you have solved 50 percent of our problem. But if you leave women ignorant and they don’t have access to education, that is another major problem that we are facing in our society today.
If we are given the opportunity, we will make sure we promote girl-child education and make sure that all those girls that are out selling things are back in their school.
If you also look at the civil service, it has virtually collapsed, people are going to work and they are going back home without salaries, this is unbelievable. Not to talk of pensioners that have spent a greater part of their lives working for the state. This is the time for the state to support them but they can’t even get their pension.
As a pensioner, when I collect my pension every month, I feel extremely bitter that I have millions of workers in Bauchi state that have no access to this same resources. So it is a very disturbing situation and at this stage having served the state, we need to help our pensioners not only in ensuring that their pensions are properly paid but to even support their medical needs just like we have in the Military, if you are retired, you have access to the best of medical facilities.
So I see no reason why somebody would finish in the state civil service and would not have access to check his blood pressure or to check his sugar level, these are basic things but unfortunately they have no access to this. So that is another area of major concern to us.
If elected come March 2023, what is the first thing you would do to address all these issues you have raised?
The first thing we will do is to look at the educational sector. Like I said if you want to destroy this society, please don’t waste your time going with weapons, just deny them education. But what we want to do immediately is to take a very crystal look at the educational sector and see what is it that we need to do to open the gates of schools and bring back those children that are out on the streets into schools, make them very comfortable, create the enabling environment where they would sit down, not where we are having today where children are sitting under the tree to learn and then you have animals roam inside the classrooms because the classrooms have so deteriorated because no human being can sit down there. Reverse is the case.
You have children under the trees learning and then you have goats in the classrooms. So the education sector is very important and I think that is the first thing that we are going to do and make sure that as much as possible, we get people back to school.
You said development and security are two sides of a coin. What is your view on the much talked about state police?
When you are talking of police, you are still talking about physical insecurity. It is all about human beings going out. The fundamental issues that we need to address are those issues that concern the socio-economic dimension of security and that is why we are talking about schools, that is why we are talking about health, that is why we are talking about empowerment of youths.
We have physical dimension of security and social dimension of security. Police, whether state police or not, creation of state police falls under the physical dimension of security. What I am bothered and worried about and in which in most cases, we are not looking at is a socio-economic and political dimension of security.
So state police, as a retired general, I will say it is an avenue to work together but what I am worried about, what I think is more important is to look at the social and economic and political dimensions of security and try to see how we can deal with the problems that are emerging from that source. For instance the lack of education, we have so many people that can be easily mobilised to violence simply because they are not educated. So what we need to do to prevent that is to make sure that education is provided and the beginning point is the states and local governments.
The federal government is also supporting education but the beginning point is what is the situation in our local governments, what is happening in primary schools? Are the teachers properly trained? Do we have the infrastructures? Are pupils sitting down on floors to write?
All these are generators of insecurity. Unless we deal with that, getting state police would not solve anything, that is one. It is when you have dealt with that you now begin to talk about physical dimension of insecurity where the police come, the kind of ammunition they are getting, the kind of training, that is when you start looking at that. But you ignore the most fundamental issues, you are not likely going to solve the insecurity problems.
So my take on the state police is yes, we can look at it at a much later time but unless we solve the social, economic and political dimensions properly, state police will not change anything.
A lot of issues happened during the party primary in Bauchi, some aggrieved members left. What are you doing and how far have you gone in reconciling the aggrieved people ahead of the formal launch of your campaign?
We have done a lot. Politics is all about reconciling interest, it is all about trying to have consensus and we have done a lot. After the primaries, I visited all the other aspirants that we went to the primaries with. I visited them with my team and I went on my own to solicit their support, that the only thing is about the state, it is not about individuals. It is not about who wins. We are all one. The whole thing is about the progressives, what we are interested is to see how do we get a better society and I tried as much as possible to see how they can come along and join us. Some of them agreed not to go to the other party but some of them along the line decided that they would consult their people and after consulting their people, they came to me. Some of them have decided to leave the APC.
We are still talking to them. We are still finding ways to reach out to them to make them understand that in Bauchi State the All Progressives Congress is the only party as far as people are concerned.
Other parties are just there. But in reality, Bauchi State is totally APC, I have no doubt about that. Like I said politics is all about discussing and we are trying to see how we can have a point of convergence. It is an issue of just sitting down and say, ‘let’s work together for the benefit of our society.’ If society collapses, we are all in it and I think we are trying to see as much as possible how we can get those that are still not feeling comfortable to come and be part of the process of changing the narratives in Bauchi State.
When you look at the depleting revenues available to the government at all levels, how do you intend to generate money to implement most of the programmes you have highlighted?
I agree with you that the issue of resource availability is very important. You can have all the ideas but if you don’t have the resources, you might not be able to do much. What I can tell you is that like I said, the agriculture sector is an area that can generate a lot of resources in Bauchi. Also the solid minerals sector has not been fully explored. Recently,you know we joined the oil producing states, our people would support our programmes and projects by ensuring that they pay our taxes as long as they are seeing the benefits.
Most times people are hesitant in paying taxes and so the IGR is very low because they have not seen the benefits of paying that money.
If they begin to see the benefits, you will not tell them, they would come out and that would enhance the internally generated revenue of the state.
Another area I talked about is solid minerals. Look at Kaduna, it is the same state, look at how Kaduna was transformed by El-Rufai. If you go to schools in Borno State, you would not believe that these are primary schools or secondary schools and that is the starting point.
So it all has to do with the commitment of leadership.
Remember Bauchi also has tourism. Look at Yankari Games Reserve. This is another area that can generate a lot of resources for the state but it is there, nobody is doing anything on it.
So as far as resource is concerned, there would be limitations but those are not limitations that can make it difficult for us to achieve those fundamental issues that we set out to achieve.
As you are about flagging off your campaign, what do you think you want to do differently?
One thing I will do is to create an enabling environment where people would have a sense of ownership of the government. People must believe that this government is our government and they must have a sense of ownership.
The only way you do that is to make the people paramount in whatever you are doing, show concerns, show that you are worried, show that you are disturbed that their children cannot go to school, show that you are disturbed that they can’t have access to hospitals, show that you are disturbed that they cannot have access to clean water. Almost 46 percent of the population in Bauchi depends on singular water.
Show that you can provide the required leadership for people to pursue their legitimate aspiration without any hinderance.
These are the fundamental things that we want to change. Governance is not just about Government House and the few people that are seated there with the governor. No. governance is about human beings and that is one thing we want to immediately change.
We must make it very clear that the whole essence of governance is to provide the enabling environment for people to feel secured and be able to fulfil their legitimate aspiration without fear. And I think that is missing today because it is only those that are in the corridor of power that feel that government is all about them.
We must change that. We must make sure that government is all about the people by ensuring that we pay special attention to those issues that touch on their daily needs – hunger, lack of access to health facilities, youths empowerment. The campaign itself would be issue based. What we want to do is to draw the attention of the people to the most fundamental issues.
